


CAPE 
CODDITIE5 

DENNIS & MARION 
CHATHAM 





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CAPE-CODDITIES 



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CAPE 
CODDITIES 



By 

DENNIS and MARION 
CHATHAM 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY 
HAROLD CUE 







BOSTON AND NEW YORK 

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

1920 






COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



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©CI.A5703a2 

M -6 (S,;>o 




FOREWORD 



These essays — thumbnail sketches 
of Cape Cod — should not be taken as 
a serious attempt to describe the Cape 
or to delineate its people. They merely 
express a perennial enthusiasm for 
this summer holiday land, to-day the 
playground of thousands of Ameri- 
cans, three hundred years ago the first 
"land of the free and home of the 
brave." 

Acknowledgments are here given to 
the Atlantic Monthly for permission to 
include " A By-Product of Conserva- 
tion" and "Scallops," to The Outlook for 
the same courtesy for "A Blue Streak," 



FOREWORD 

and to The House Beautiful for "A 
Casual Dwelling-Place." 

THE AUTHORS. 
January^ 1920, 









COJ^TEMTS 




I. 


A Message from the Past 


1 


II. 


The Casual Dwelling-Place 


10 


III. 


The Ubiquitous Clam 


27 


IV. 


A By-Product of Consei'vation 


38 


V. 


Motor Tyrannicus 


51 


VI. 


' ' Change and Res f — Summer 
Bargaining 


69 


VII. 


A Blue Streak 


87 


VIII. 


A Fresh- Water Cape 


97 


IX. 


Al Fresco 


112 


X. 


Models 


122 


XI. 


''A Wet Sheet and a Flowing 
Sea'' 


132 


XII. 


My Cape Farm 


140 


XIII. 


Scallops 


154 




Aftermath 


166 



v.v,^^?)e*j5^.; 




CAPE-CODDITIES 



I 

A MESSAGE FROM THE PAST 



Is it not Strange that people who 
dwell in the same city block from 
October to May, enjoying with mu- 
tual satisfaction the life which touches 
them equally, should from May to 
October show such varying opinions 
that argument is futile? These people 
who have wintered so happily to- 

CO 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

gether may be placed in three classes 
— those who claim for the State of 
Maine the exclusive right to the title 
of "God's Own Country," those who 
think of the North Shore and Para- 
dise as synonymous, and those other 
fortunates whose regard for Cape 
Cod places it second only to heaven 
itself. 

Therefore, it is interesting to read 
the following passages and to find 
these same divergent views of the 
Cape in earliest times. 

Captain John Smith in his account 
of New England in 1614, in a pass- 
ing reference to Cape Cod, says it 
"is a headland of high hills of sand 
overgrown with shrubbie pines, hurts 

1^1 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

and such trash, but an excellent har- 
bor for all weathers. This cape is 
made by the maine sea on one side 
and a great bay on the other, in the 
form of a sickle. On it doth inhabit 
the people of Pawmet and in the 
Bottome of the Bay, the people of 
Chawum.'' Scant praise. 

Bartholomew Gosnold, writing to 
Raleigh in 1602, through the medium 
of his associate, John Brereton, said, 
" We stood a while like men rav- 
ished at the beautie and delicacie of 
this sweet soil"; and later, "truly the 
holsomnese and temperature of this 
climat doth not only argue this people 
(Indian) to be answerable to this de- 
scription, but also of a perfect consti- 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

tution of body, active, strong, health- 
ful and very wittie/' 

Here spoke the original summer 
visitor and the founder of that colony 
which dots the coast from Marion to 
Manomet. 

If Gosnold could see the Cape on 
the present day, he would doubtless 
show profound disappointment, unless 
he had chanced to invest in shore prop- 
erty, for the forests teeming with game 
have disappeared, and no trace of the 
wit he describes can be detected among 
the few Indians who still cling to the 
shores of Mashpee Pond. But the broad 
waters, the sloping sands, and above 
all the soft climate which Mr. Brereton 
tells us did so much for the aborigine, 
C4] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

and which now transforms our children 
into veritable little red men, remain. 

Despite the depredations which the 
Cape has suffered at the hands of both 
natives and summer residents, its flavor 
has been maintained, and the very fact 
that it is largely inhabited serves well 
in these days of friendly intercourse 
and indulgent habits ; for we all of us 
must live happily in summer, and to 
do so means comfort, food, and drink. 
And so we find each town, however 
diminutive, possesses its Butcher and 
Baker and Candlestick-Maker. 

The latter, to be sure, is employed 

by the local electric light plant, and 

often his trade includes a knowledge 

of simple plumbing. The Baker more 

[5] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

often is both Postmaster and Grocer, 
while the Butcher may be found to be 
the Chairman of the Board of Select- 
men. But all are true to the type, and 
that wit which Gosnold so happily 
mentions may often be detected among 
these simple people, some of whom 
are sea captains whose taciturnity has 
been transformed into a shrewd c)nii- 
cism coupled not infrequently with 
a delightful optimism. Rarely will a 
native Cape-Cod der get the worst of 
a repartee and still more rarely will 
you find him the first to terminate a 
conversation. He is as tenacious in con- 
versational competition as he is lax 
in business aggression. In fact, he 
would far rather stand on the corner 

C6] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

and describe to you, in detail, the 
amount of work that has been shoul- 
dered upon him by So and So and So 
and So's wife, than to make the slightest 
attempt to accomplish any of the sun- 
dry duties imposed. And yet he knows, 
and so do you, if you are at all versed 
in Cape ways, that he will receive am- 
ple financial return for his slightest 
service. 

There is no such word as hurry in 
the bright lexicon of Cape Cod, but I 
confess it with some trepidation, for 
my many Cape friends will take violent 
exception to my statement, true as it 
is. And yet I do not blame them. I 
believe it is thoroughly accounted for 
by the climate; for when I first visit 

ill 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

the Cape in the spring or early sum- 
mer, I always experience a languor 
which makes the slightest effort seem 
a task of large proportions. In short, I 
am lazy and prefer to see some one 
else do it. This feeling generally passes 
away with the sheer joy of vacation 
days, days of freedom and fresh air; 
but I realize that the climate breeds a 
lack of ambition, to which I doubtless 
would succumb were I to live on 
without interruption amid the Cape- 
Codders. 

And therefore I prefer to think of 
the Cape as a playground for the in- 
itiate, a wonderland for children, and 
a haven of rest for the tired of all ages, 
a land where lines and wrinkles quickly 

[83 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

disappear under the soothing softness 
of the tempered dimate. 

Joseph Lincoln has told us of the 
people; Thoreau has written of the 
place; but no one will really know 
the Cape unless he becomes a part of it. 




J/ -.1^.1,^ 






II 

THE CASUAL DWELLING-PLACE 

Is there a reader who has not at one 
time or another gloated over the ter- 
rors, the thrills, and the mji^steries 
which, in fiction, invariably lie hidden 
in an unoccupied house? When one 
stops to think of it nearly all the lit- 
erature of roguery, as so clearly set 
forth in former days by Wilkie Col- 
lins, Gaboriau, down to Conan Doyle 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

and Mary Roberts Rinehart, possesses 
as its most important stage-setting an 
untenanted mansion. It may be one of 
those familiar villas generally located 
somewhere near Hampstead Heath, a 
house set apart from its neighbors 
and surrounded by a hedge; a house 
with every appearance of having 
been closed for several years and 
now showing the first signs of decay ; 
or it may be one of those somber 
brownstone houses situated in one of 
the many New York residential streets, 
where every house so closely resem- 
bles its fellows as to court mischief to 
all who may return late at night ; or 
again, it may be one of those palatial 
country houses set among lawns and 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

gardens which are invariably described 
with broad, magnificent porticoes to- 
ward which spotless limousines are 
continually approaching at top speed 
for no apparent reason. Such a setting 
is perhaps the commonest, and the 
time is always just before the family 
arrive for the season or just after they 
have left for other equally expen- 
sive quarters. Now and then the nov- 
elist will modestly cast the fate of his 
story in the seclusion of a deserted 
cottage by the sea or a lonely hut 
among the hills, but rarely does this 
occur nowadays. The mystery story 
is as dependent upon luxury of setting 
as is the modern bachelor upon his crea- 
ture comforts. And, therefore, if the 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

devotee of fiction chose to apply him- 
self to this theme, he would find that 
nearly all novelists, great and small, 
from Dickens to Oppenheim, from 
Hawthorne to Anna Katharine Green, 
have utilized the empty house to bring 
about the climactic point in the weav- 
ing of some gruesome tale. So clear 
are these fictional features that, by the 
association of ideas, one's fears and 
apprehensions are invariably aroused 
whenever the occasion arises when 
an unoccupied house or even an un- 
tenanted apartment must be entered. 

With that unmistakable odor of 
mustiness comes afresh this uncom- 
fortable sense of trepidation (hardly 
fear, perhaps), and with it a convic- 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

tion that rats and mice are hidden 
spectators, and that the darkness and 
gloom could well hide crime as well 
as the thieves themselves. This entire 
mental state is largely caused by the 
aforesaid novehsts, who I doubt not 
would have the same hesitancy in 
opening the door of a darkened cham- 
ber or in groping down the cellar 
stairs of a house long left to disinte- 
gration. 

In short, reading has trained us all 
to regard empty houses with suspicion, 
an absurd state of mind which should 
be quickly dispelled, for in the case of 
nine out of every ten, yes, or ninety- 
nine out of every hundred houses, there 
is no cause whatever for suspicion. 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

There is a sunny little house on the 
shores of Buzzard's Bay which remains 
unoccupied except for ten weeks in the 
summer. Its shutters are closed and 
fastened long before the oaks have 
turned to their gorgeous fall colorings 
or the marigolds and phlox have lost 
the freshness of their bloom. 

The soft, salty breeze, rippling the- 
waters, the dancing rays of the Sep- 
tember sun through the swaying pines, 
give a joyous setting to this cottage 
by the water, courting as it were an 
occupant. The hardiest of that over- 
worked class of readers who rely upon 
mystery stories would find it difficult 
to conjure up a tragedy for such a spot. 
The native Cape-Codders, knowing the 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

owners, always glance over toward 
the cottage as they pass by in the hope 
of finding a blind open or a light 
through the trees, to show that some 
of " ther famly be down for Sunday/' 
For this is one of the important serv- 
ices which this particular cottage ren- 
ders to its owners. As the scion of 
the family (aged ten) once sagely re- 
marked, "We use the cottage more 
when it 's closed than when it 's open.'' 
And to each and every member of 
this house its welcome is always the 
same. The family reach the house 
after dark on a Saturday night. The 
lock readily responds to familiar fin- 
gers, the door creaks a friendly wel- 
come as the family grope their way 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

through the hall in good-humored ri- 
valry to see which shall be the first to 
secure the box of matches always kept 
on the right-hand corner of the man- 
telpiece in the living-room for this 
emergency. Then, as the lamps are 
lighted, the old familiar objects appear 
precisely as they had been left, per- 
haps six months before, with a coating 
of dust, to be sure, but nothing which 
a few moments and a dustcloth could 
not remove ; for dust in this region is 
little known. True, the chairs, or at 
least such of them as possess cushions, 
are shrouded in covers. The sofa is a 
bulging conglomeration of cushions, 
gathered from all hammocks and pi- 
azza furniture ; but a few deft passes 

[17] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

by the fairy godmother of this estab- 
lishment, and presto, the cushions are 
distributed and the sofa offers a cozy 
retreat for the entire party. Otherwise 
the living-room is livable. A fire ready 
laid is only waiting for a match and a 
turn of the hand to open the flue. 
Such is a cottage by the sea if it has 
been planned and built as it should be, 
not alone for summer use, but also for 
spring and autumn holidays. 

The little cottage in question is a 
very ancient affair. A long line of 
sturdy Cape-Codders dwelt in it, un- 
comfortably, for generations. It was 
not until a few years ago that it 
was entirely renovated, enlarged, and 
equipped for summer use. Much care 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

and thought were given to its con- 
venience, and it stands to-day as a 
model for perennial use as a casual 
habitation. But it has certain draw- 
backs; as, for instance, plaster. Such 
a cottage, to secure the maximum 
comfort with the minimum of ex- 
pense, should be unplastered, and 
without a cellar so that the circula- 
tion of air will keep the house free 
from dampness. There should be a 
kerosene cooking-stove in the kitchen 
so that the cooking can be done with- 
out jeopardizing the water coil or 
boiler. Furthermore, unless one's fam- 
ily and friends are experts in the cu- 
linary art, the usual stove fire is built 
regardless of the cost of coal or kind- 

[193 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

lings, and the fire itself is apt to take 
a good deal of time in the making, 
several trials often being necessary 
before the coals kindle into a respect- 
able glow. The problem of water is 
perhaps the most troublesome. No 
house, of course, can be left with the 
water on during the winter season. 
These Cape cottages are no excep- 
tion to the rule, and every pipe is 
carefully drained and the faucets 
greased to prevent rust. 

To go to the trouble of turning on 
the water system for an occasional 
Sunday or holiday was manifestly out 
of the question, and so the owner 
of this particular cottage solved the 
difficulty in true backwoods fashion. 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

A small stone tank, placed in the 
closet behind the stove, holding not 
over five gallons of water, was always 
religiously filled. This served as lubri- 
cant for a hand pump at the kitchen 
sink. One of the first duties in start- 
ing in housekeeping was to heat a 
pail of this water, thaw out the pump, 
and thus secure the supply which ade- 
quately filled the family needs for the 
day or two of camp life to be enjoyed. 
You will ask what of bedding and 
blankets? They are there at hand. 
As a matter of fact, the less one puts 
away the better for each and every 
article. All blankets hung upon ropes 
stretched across the attic are dry and 
ready for use. Upon such occasions as 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

the one noted, the family do without 
sheets and sleep fully as soundly. The 
blazing of the fire logs and the warmth 
of the living-room have given to all 
a drowsy feeling which defies wake- 
fulness when once the head touches 
the pillow. 

If any one should contemplate mak- 
ing use of his summer house in this 
fashion, there are certain suggestions 
which it would be well to follow; 
points which any yachtsman or camper 
would never overlook. 

First of all, there should be a place 
for everything and everything should 
be in place. You can never tell when 
you will return. Perhaps you may be 
delayed and not arrive until after dark. 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

chilled and hungry from a long motor 
ride. At such times a fire ready laid, 
with a good store of dried wood, is 
essential to happiness and comfort. 

There should always be a list of 
provisions left at the house so that 
you may avoid duplication in purchas- 
ing supplies. Besides food, there should 
also be such necessaries as soap, 
matches, and candles. These should 
always be left in the boxes to prevent 
the mice and squirrels from robbing 
one. A good scheme is to build a 
zinc-lined cupboard in the pantry in 
which to keep such perishables. 

Kerosene is dangerous to leave about, 
and it is well to bring this with you 
for the cook-stove ; furthermore, it is 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

hard to remember whether enough 
has been left at the house for twenty- 
four hours' use. 

Care should always be taken to leave 
the small water tank filled unless you 
plan to secure your supply from a friend 
or neighbor. 

Your pots and pans, cutlery, dishes, 
and glasses should always be washed 
and put away in order before leaving, 
ready for instant use. 

A little system will make all the dif- 
ference in the world in the comfort and 
enjoyment of such an outing, and will 
save labor, so that your actual work will 
be done in much less time and the day- 
light hours can be given over to the 
outdoor life which endears the place 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

to each and every member of your 
family. 

Whether it be a canoe, a knock- 
about, a gun, or a fishing-line, the life 
outside the cottage will be a reflection 
of that within and your enjoyment will 
come from the facility with which you 
manage the essentials of simple living. 
And so after you have enjoyed your 
day in the open, you will return to the 
cottage and discover that the simple 
comforts which it offers, while perhaps 
lacking the luxury of your daily rou- 
tine at home, will be enjoyed with a 
relish far beyond that existence in a 
brick block, amid a mass of bric-a- 
brac and surrounded by servants. In 
its place you will devour an unusual 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

amount of food which tastes the better 
because you have cooked it, and later 
you will fall asleep with the wind sing- 
ing in the trees, and the waves lapping 
the shores. The occasional barking of 
a dog will arouse no apprehension, 
and the dread of haunted houses, of 
mysterious deeds accomplished behind 
closed shutters, will have vanished 
until you are safe home again with a 
"thriller'' to pass away the time be- 
fore it is seasonable to retire. 








Ill 



THE UBIQUITOUS CLAM 



"They scattered up & down ... by y^ water- 
side, wher they could find ground nuts and clams." 
(William Bradford, History of Plymouth Planta' 
tion^ II, 130.) 

Surprising as it may seem, the clam, 
at least under his own name, does not 
appear in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
And yet the clam is proverbial, meta- 
phorical, and substantial, so substantial, 
in fact, that individuals of uncertain 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

digestion have been rendered dis- 
tinctly unhappy after a hearty encoun- 
ter. But what is more surprising to 
the average person, and especially to 
the novice in clamming, is where all 
the clams come from for the unending 
clam-bakes, clam-chowders, and the 
various concoctions necessitating a gen- 
erous supply of these silent shellfish. 
A journey to the beach at low tide 
(for all clammers know from the ref- 
erence to that animal's joyous spirit at 
high water that clamming is useless at 
that period) generally fails to accom- 
plish more than a very lame back, 
muddy feet, and a paltry dozen or 
more specimens of the clam family, 
generally of immature age. The pro- 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

fusion of empty shells scattered about 
encourage the clammer into the belief 
that here, at least, is a favorable local- 
ity for his first efforts, and he grasps 
his fork and bends low, thrusting the 
implement into the black ooze with 
keen anticipation that the mud will dis- 
close a whole family of clams, ready 
at hand for capture ; but, instead, he is 
rewarded by finding a number of white 
shells, seemingly clams, but in reality 
merely their shells held closely to- 
gether by mud and sand, the skeletons 
of former bivalves whose souls have fled 
to other worlds and whose bodies have 
long since disappeared the way of all 
flesh. And so he seeks another spot, and 
the same process is repeated. Each time 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

he is conscious of an increasing stiff- 
ening of the back, recaUing former 
twinges of lumbago, and after an hour 
or so the tide forces him to retreat, and 
he returns dejectedly to partake of a 
thin clam-broth, upon the top of which, 
as a consolation prize, his wife has 
tactfully placed a little whipped cream. 
And yet the clam is ubiquitous, once 
you know him, and the clammer, him- 
self, has been immortahzed by Mr. 
Wilham J. Hopkins in several delight- 
ful stories with which certain readers 
are familiar. The enthusiast soon learns 
their favorite haunts and on favorable 
tides he gathers these bivalves by the 
pailful. For chowders and for bait alike 
he digs, constructs a wire cage in which 

cso:] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

to keep his precious clams from day 
to day, and week to week, and thus 
they become, as it were, almost a part 
of his summer entourage. 

The clam is a numerous family 
[My a arenaria, were one to become 
scientific). The ordinary mud clam 
which inhabits the tidewater harbors of 
our coasts ; the quahog, whose young, 
termed "little necks,'' are served, un- 
cooked, as appetizers ; and the sea 
clam, are very familiar in appearance 
and habits ; but all varieties are secured 
in different ways and in varying local- 
ities, and therein lies an added charm 
to the pastime of clam-digging. 

There is a certain portion of the 
coast line in a very attractive section 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

of Cape Cod, which shall be nameless, 
where all varieties of these mollusks 
abound, and it is difficult at times to 
decide which variety to pursue. The 
ordinary mud clam is generally sought 
on the especially low tides so kindly 
afforded by the moon at stated inter- 
vals. It is then that the tide line re- 
sembles miniature trenches — first-line 
defenses, if you will — s^o many and 
so persistent are the pursuers, who 
look for all the world as if they were 
digging themselves in in anticipation 
of a machine-gun attack. 

The quahog is more secure, for he 

lives in No Man's Land, beyond the 

trenches and just under the surface of 

the mud. If one is walking up a salty, 

[32] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

muddy creek — and surprising as the 
fact may seem, one often does follow 
this watery bypath — the foot will 
continue to disclose these big fellows. 
In the course of an hour of this method 
of locomotion, a full pail of quahogs 
may be secured without further dis- 
comfort than a pair of wet legs and 
two very muddy feet. The fishermen, 
however, regard such efforts as time 
lost. They manipulate two long-han- 
dled rakes bound together at the bot- 
tom, and with this implement a sort 
of hand-dredging process is performed 
which apparently yields better results. 
But it is only the native fisherman, 
with his knowledge of tides and cur- 
rents, of sandy or muddy bottoms, of 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

channels and shoals, who can success- 
fully locate the choice spots where 
these quahogs lie hidden beneath 
water, seaweed, and mud. 

The sea clam is as immaculately 
clean as his harbor cousin is muddy. 
He is likewise found just beneath the 
surface of the water, buried in firm 
white sand over which the white- 
crested breakers foam on the beach. 
These clams are not greatly valued 
as food. They are gamy and tough 
in comparison to their brethren and 
a sharp contrast in appearance, with 
their delicate, smooth shell of an ex- 
quisite cafe au lait color, and it is for 
this reason, perhaps, that only the 
most enthusiastic of clammers or fish- 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

ermen after bait know of their where- 
abouts. 

Along the beaches where thousands 
of Americans may be seen in impres- 
sionistic attire, disporting themselves 
by bobbing up and down in the waves, 
one could easily secure a pailful of 
these fascinating creatures by wading 
out and groping in the sands. No more 
exhilarating pleasure can be secured 
from surf bathing than in this pastime, 
which calls for agility in dodging the 
breakers as they roll in. While you 
are in the act of dislodging a fine fat 
specimen, your pail grasped in one 
hand, the other embedded in the sand 
seeking your prey, your body is swept 
first in, then out, by the waves. In 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

order to regain your balance you lose 
your hold, just escape being toppled 
over by the next wave rushing toward 
its finish on the sands, and miss the 
clam; and so the process begins all 
over again. 

The '* little necks" have their own 
places of abode close to the surface 
of the mud in sequestered inlets. Now 
and again the plebeian clammer will 
come across a stray family of little 
fellows while in quest of the common 
variety, but as a pastime digging for 
"little necks " has but little zest. 

And now, after realizing the fas- 
cination of clamming, why be sur- 
prised if, when you run down to the 
Cape for a week-end, your host grips 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

you with a hand, cold and moist from 
submersion — a " clammy hand " ; and 
why be surprised if on the following 
day, instead of the routine of golf and 
tennis, you are initiated into this sim- 
ple sport? The surprise would come 
to the writer of this slight dissertation 
if he should find you callous to the 
delight of clamming or disrespectful 
of the occupation of the clammer. 








IV 



A BY-PRODUCT OF CONSERVATION 



The torrent of conservation surged 
over our community in war-time with 
a mighty roar, carrying with it all 
thought of flowers and lawns, and 
making chaos of our cherished plans 
for a summer garden. With a velocity 
which only social enterprise could ini- 
tiate, New England became a market 
garden from Eastport to Greenwich. 
[38] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

Conservation developed back yards and 
vacant lots into gardens, and bank 
clerks into farmers, enthusiastic at the 
prospect, and innocent of the coming 
torments which weeds and pests would 
soon bring with them. And so, for 
this same reason, our flower garden 
on the Cape simmered down to a few 
nasturtiums and whatever blossoms 
of a perennial nature cared to show 
themselves, while our spring borders, 
usually a riot of color, were given 
over to vegetables. 

What, then, should we have in our 
vases to reflect the profusion of the 
outdoor season? For a room without 
flowers in summer is as devoid of 
character and charm as a man with- 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

out a necktie. The solution, naturally, 
was soon found by many in the wild 
flowers, and if conservation has ac- 
complished nothing else, its gift to us 
of an appreciation of the beauty and 
variety of these exquisite plants will 
more than repay our efforts to grow 
potatoes, beans, and corn at exorbi- 
tant prices with doubtful success. 

The last days of school for the chil- 
dren and certain affairs at the office, 
together with fixed habits which tyr- 
annize over the household, kept us 
from leaving for the Cape until late 
in June, so that we missed the may- 
flowers which have made Cape Cod 
famous for generations. The iris and 
violets, too, had disappeared, as well 
[40] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

as the dogwood with its delicate and 
generous pink-and- white petals. A few 
short hours after our arrival, my little 
daughter discovered near by some ex- 
quisite specimens of the wild lupine 
growing just as I had last seen it upon 
the slopes of Mount Tamalpais near 
San Francisco, although perhaps not 
in the same profusion. 

From that first day until well into 
September, our living-room was made 
joyous by a succession of flowers as 
delicate and graceful as ever came 
from the highly cultivated gardens of 
the idle rich — a term which will soon 
vanish and justly so. 

The wild roses were late and never 
more plentiful or more perfect. The 

[41;] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

daisies, arranged amid clusters of shiny 
bayberry and huckleberry leaves, were 
transformed into stately decorations. 
The broom, as it is often called, which 
abounds in certain sections of the Cape, 
planted there in past years without 
doubt, gave one a sense of having been 
ferried across the sea overnight, while 
our own columbine and wild geranium 
made a pleasing variety, especially 
when arranged with the soft green of 
the wild sarsaparilla. 

With the coming of July, the Hud- 
sonia, or beach heather, clothed our 
foreground with brilliant yellow spots, 
touches of the sun here and there, 
while the low wild shrubs and grasses 
seemed to grow overnight in their de- 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

sire to hide our view of the water. 
After a week of rain in which we were 
confined to the flowers about the house 
— succulent clover, Queen Anne's 
lace, and a wide variety of tall grasses, 
which, mingled with pine branches, 
form admirable wall decoration — our 
desire for botanical information led us 
to scour the near-by country, not with 
guide-book, motor-maps, or even a 
copy of "How to Know the Wild 
Flowers,'' but to journey simply forth, 
either on foot or tucked tightly into 
our Ford car. To come unexpectedly 
upon one of the many ponds dotted 
with lilies and fringed with a variety 
of flowering shrubs caused as delight- 
ful a sensation as the same sight a few 
C43] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

years ago would have aroused, only 
then it would have stimulated a very 
different desire — the thought of a 
possible bass, lazily drifting below the 
surface, to be tempted, perhaps, by a 
fly, would have been uppermost. But 
this summer our sport lay in securing 
wild flowers, a harmless and charming 
pastime in which for the first time all 
the members of the family found equal 
enjoyment, and even our near neigh- 
bors, confirmed golfers, admitted the 
fascination of our newly acquired sport. 
To return laden with lilies, wild clem- 
atis, marsh mallows, delicately pink 
upon their tall, stately stems, cat-tails, 
red hlies, the fragrant clethra, and a 
variety of other flowers whose names 
[44] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

are to be discovered in the winter over 
a "complete botanical guide," savored 
of a veritable triumph. 

Our growing interest in this wild 
garden was amply rewarded, for now 
in August the flowers were at their 
height and it became doubly interest- 
ing. Whether the discovery of new 
varieties or the satisfaction of gather- 
ing and arranging the commonest 
weeds brought the greater pleasure, 
it is hard to judge. The recollection 
of a tall, graceful copper vase filled 
with the despised chicory and bouncing 
Bet, the blue of the one and the deli- 
cate, pinkish purple of the other blend- 
ing charmingly and supported in con- 
trast by a few sprays of sumac leaves, 
[45] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

lingers as one of the floral discoveries 
of the summer. A mass of fire- 
weed, interspersed with slender sprays 
of salt grass in full bloom, is an- 
other. 

And yet to the sportsman or the 
embryonic scientist, individuals of very 
similar characteristics, an excursion 
into the back country through the 
woods, a good, long, honest tramp in 
pursuit of new floral game, and the 
finding, now a clump of cardinal- 
flowers and again the deadly night- 
shade (for the sportsman and scientist 
alike are fearless), is keen pleasure. 

At times we would return with lit- 
tle booty to show for our trouble, a 
gathering of St. John's- wort, perhaps, 
[46] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

or a few stalks of mallow or one-eyed 
daisies, but never empty-handed and 
always with the exhilaration of the 
thought that here was a garden with- 
out limit, without weeds, and without 
the cares and expenses to which we 
were accustomed. 

In arrangement, it must be confessed 
that discussion often arose. Certain 
members of the family, who shall be 
nameless, preferred a few blooms alone 
in each vase, while others clamored 
loudly for garnishings of salt grasses 
and other green decorations. Upon such 
flowers as butterfly-weed and tansy, 
such discussions nearly ended in riots, 
and only a tactful distribution of these 
blooms to those who had gathered 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

them with full authority as to arrange- 
ment secured peace. 

The goldenrod made its appearance 
earlier than usual, the handsome, sturdy 
variety which grows close to the tide- 
water being especiall}^ fine. With it 
came the purple and white wild asters, 
which are in reality so much more beau- 
tiful than the cultivated kind, and the 
sea lavender vying with baby's-breath 
in its delicacy. 

In this September a pleasant sur- 
prise came in the discovery of a flower 
which we called — and possibly incor- 
rectly so — the wild primrose, growing 
close to the coast among the pines and 
scrub oaks ; and blooming at this same 
time was the beach pea, a long, climb- 
[483 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

ing vine of a pinkish- violet color, lux- 
uriating amid the desolation of the 
sand-dunes. 

Close upon the heels of these blos- 
soms, which both seemed to belong to 
the springtime, the turning of the 
leaves, the crispness of the air, the 
short evenings, and the aforesaid three 
governing reasons, school, office, and 
domestic domination, decided us with 
more reluctance than ever to close 
the cottage. It was not until our lug- 
gage was packed and ready that our 
final gatherings of the season's wild 
flowers were removed and the vases 
put away against the coming of next 
spring. 
* It still remains to be seen whether 
[49] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

conservation will ultimately lead to a 
saving in the cost of food ( for Ameri- 
cans are more given to preaching than 
to practice) but it has served us well 
in our appreciation of certain of the 
good things in life. 










MOTOR TYRANNICUS 



In the dim days of a decade ago — a 
generation might well have passed, for 
time is measured by the march of events 
rather than the procession of years — 
I remember yearning for the possession 
of an automobile. It mattered not what 
make, or shape or size or year. I w^as 
oblivious to the merits of six cylinders 
as opposed to four. I laughed at the 

1:50 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

enthusiast who reckoned upon the 
length of wheel-base as deciding his 
comfort or the question of demountable 
rims as governing his decision as to 
which make to select. All I coveted 
was something on wheels (preferably 
four) of my own which might go or 
even might not go, for so rampant 
was the possessive desire in my heart 
that the chief thing in the world seemed 
to me at that time to be able to say " My 
motor " in an utterly casual, matter-of- 
fact tone, and back it up by nodding 
my head in the direction of the barn, 
which after the fashion of marriages 
had suddenly changed its name over- 
night by the possession of a master, and 
so became my "garage." 
[52] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

This ridiculous state of mind is easy 
to account for. In v/inter we lived in 
the suburbs where it seemed to both 
my wife and to me that every friend 
we had owned a car. In summer we 
sojourned upon Cape Cod, where the 
motor had replaced the runabout so 
completely that our old horse looked 
like a prehistoric rehc of the Stone 
Age. Added to this was the ignominy 
of knowing that the Butcher and Baker 
both possessed machines and had that 
mythological person the Candlestick- 
maker abided in our town, doubtless 
he also would have honk-honked his 
way by our door. 

In short, the thing got so badly on 
our nerves that finally, with full knowl- 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

edge of the financial iniquity involved, 
I purchased one of those hopelessly 
plebeian affairs v^hich travel under so 
many opprobrious pseudonymns — a 
Ford. From that day to this I have 
owned some sort of a car and have 
thought myself a wise and a fortunate 
man, and subconsciously I have felt 
myself rather more of a person because 
of this possession, for such is the frailty 
of human nature. 

To-day, however, marks a turning- 
point, a milestone, a crisis in my ca- 
reer. Personally I consider this day 
one of triumph — I have sold my car. 
I have no independent means of trans- 
portation other than my own good 
legs — or, at least, they were so until 
[54] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

I neglected them — and I rejoice in 
my motorless state. I feel a sense 
of exhilaration in my freedom from 
Fords, from the bondage of Buicks, 
from captivity in my Chandler Sedan. 
Such exhilaration is doubtless hard to 
understand because precisely the same 
conditions now exist which originally 
drove me into buying that first " Uni- 
versal Car," only in a more exagger- 
ated degree. My children (and now 
there are more of them) are always 
clamoring for rides, even for the short 
distance of a few blocks which sepa- 
rates our house from school. My wife 
(and I must confess there is now 
more of her too) still plies her trade 
of exchanging visits and buzzing about 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

town all day long, never thinking of 
walking, and for myself, I have be- 
come mutely accustomed to the role 
of family chauffeur when not attempt- 
ing that increasing impossibility, the 
attempt to make both ends meet. 

And yet, is it after all so hard to 
understand this relief? In the first 
place, the car, no matter what variety, 
either goes or it does not go. If by 
chance it goes, you must go with it. 
If it does not go, you must make it 
go or get some one who knows more 
about it than you do, and who costs 
more than you do, to mend [it. That 
means that you go upstairs into your 
own room and change into old clothes 

1562 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

reserved for this purpose, go down 
again and out to the garage, where 
you stand in contemplative mood for 
some moments before crawling under 
the machine. When you are safely 
landed in a dripping pool of oil, your 
children and your neighbor's children 
come trooping in from play and ask 
you why you are there and what you 
are doing. This in itself is disconcert- 
ing, for you generally don't know. 
Having successfully found that out 
you slowly emerge from your cramped 
quarters, which compare only with an 
upper berth, return to your room, re- 
sume the garb of a successful business 
man, and take the car to a garage and 
there wait until some one makes it 

[57:1 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

souJid all right. This individual vies 
with the tax collector in separating 
you from all excess cash. 

This does not happen every day, I 
admit, but there is a sensation in the 
back of the mind of nearly every mo- 
torist which is more or less constant. 
You know that you worry when the 
car does not go. There is no ground 
for speculation upon this point. You 
worry about what the matter is, and 
when you find you can't mend it, and 
take it to a garage to be repaired, you 
worry as to whether you have taken 
it to the right garage, or the right 
man in the garage. You fuss over 
the cost and you continually wonder 
whether the repairs have been prop- 

C58:] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

erly done or whether the blamed thing 
won't break out in the same place the 
next time you take the car out. And 
during this whole period you feel in 
the bottom of your heart that you could 
have mended it just as well yourself. 

Then there are the worries when 
it does go. You wonder when the tires 
are going to give out, whether they 
are too flat or too inflated, whether 
you put in gas before you started, and 
and how the water is. You are con- 
tinually guessing whether you have 
too much or too little oil, and you 
generally guess wrong. 

These, however, are all mere trifles, 
the superficial maunderings of a sen- 
sitive organism. Your major worries 

C59:] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

may be classified under three head- 
ings: 

First : the worry of changing cars. 
Every year the question comes up for 
family discussion, competing valiantly 
with the problem of when we are to move 
to the Cape. Shall we turn in the old car 
and get a new one ? If so, what kind ? 
— and then follows a month of violent 
discussion in which my wife and the 
children take one side and I the other. 
By instinct I am a modest man and 
by habit cautious. I do not like changes, 
especially sudden changes, and so my 
inclination is either to stick to the old 
car for another year or buy a new one 
like it. My family — why I cannot 
say — seem to be oppositely inclined. 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

My wife avers that So-and-So has had 
great luck with a . Billy, my eld- 
est, backs her up with several lengthy 
anecdotes told him by So-and-So' s son, 
proving the excellence of that make 
above all others. I am sufficiently 
shaken in my opinion to consult with 
the garage-man from whom I bought 
my car, only to be shown a car of the 
variety mentioned in deplorable con- 
dition awaiting the mechanic's skill. 
Poor engine, inadequate something or 
other, — I can't remember the name, 
— and so it goes. My office is thronged 
with automobile salesmen so that work 
is impossible, while the evenings are 
passed in futile argument until the 
final verdict is given, resulting gen- 

ceo 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

erally in a compromise — a new car is 
purchased of a trifle better type at a 
considerable advance in price and the 
old car sacrificed for a song. Those 
days of budding greenness for which 
we have longed through all the cold, 
useless days of winter are utterly ruined 
by this fearful problem. 

The second worry comes with 
breakfast daily. Who is to use the car 
during the day ? The day being balmy, 
I had thought of going to town in it, 
especially as I wanted to make a call 
on the way home. My wife, it seems, 
had planned to go to the dressmaker. 
I should have guessed it. Billy, who 
has just arrived at the legal age which 
foolishly permits youth to endanger 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

the lives and liberty of American citi- 
zens, had planned to take a number 
of his cronies to St. Mark's School to 
see a ball game. Billy, as can be read- 
ily imagined, wins out. 

This daily observance takes the en- 
tire breakfast period and often leads to 
slight feeling. I say slight because I 
rarely ever secure the car myself un- 
less it needs repairing. 

The last worry may perhaps be 
more likened to fear. "What next?'' I 
generally remark — for this third 
division concerns our friends. In that 
happy decade, now but a dream, we 
used to live in a delightful community, 
surrounded by friends who dropped 
in and then dropped out again, both 

[63] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

happy incidents in our daily life. But 
now, who has time to see his neigh- 
bors when every one is frantically 
motoring to some distant acquaint- 
ance miles away ? What can you do 
when some friend at the end of no- 
where invites you to dinner because 
she knows you have a motor? You 
go because your wife explains that this 
sort of thing is what a motor is for. 

Is this not a matter for worry ? — to 
work in an office until five ; to jour- 
ney home with the knowledge that in 
exactly thirty minutes you start out, in 
a car which needs oiling and when 
one of the tires should have more air, 
for a distant suburb, where you are to 
meet a number of people you do not 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

know and never care to see again. 
That this sort of thing is going to in- 
crease just as long as you have a 
pesky car is more than a cause for 
worry. It is a calamity. 

In a trice all this vanished, for I sold 
my car. I remember hearing the story 
of a Southerner whose property was 
taken from him during the Civil War 
and who later was robbed of all the 
money on his person. He confessed 
to a feeling of intense joy and relief, 
for with his loss of property went his 
feeling of responsibility, and care-free 
he entered the army and fought a gal- 
lant fight. 

And so upon that day I walked with 
elastic tread, head up, chest out, de- 
[65] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

lighting in the discovery of freedom. 
I care not that my friends all possess 
cars. I 've had one — several in fact 
— and I can afford to buy others, but 
I am not going to. That is, not yet 
(and here I remember my family, 
somewhat dubiously). I plan to renew 
the pleasures of daily rambles over the 
beautiful hills of my own town. I plan 
to renew old friendships with my neigh- 
bors near by. I look forward to an 
occasional Sunday at home. In short, 
I picture the joy of being without 
a motor. 

As a matter of fact, however, this 
vision was short-lived. In the first 
place, the ramble over the old familiar 
hills made me so beastly lame that 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

my Sunday at home was a painful 
one, and the day was punctuated by 
the complaints of each and every mem- 
ber of the family over the loss of the 
car. I ventured out, still painfully, to 
call upon one or two of my old neigh- 
bors, just for a run in and out again, 
but they, it seemed, were out in their 
motors, and so I returned dejectedly 
to the sad-faced group in my own 
living-room, where we managed to 
exist until bedtime, conversing upon 
our prospective move to the Cape, 
and what it meant to the various mem- 
bers of the family to be — as my 
daughter puts it — a million miles away 
from every one with no means of ever 
leaving the house. And so it was the 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

Cape and its appeal which broke my 
defenses, for I must confess our sea- 
sonal trips there were a delightful part 
of our existence, to say nothing of the 
joys of our summer life. 

The next day I took an early train 
to town, and I came home that eve- 
ning somewhat sheepish, but reason- 
ably happy, for I came in a new car, 
which bids fair to be the best one yet ; 
it is certainly the most expensive. 



^—^^'^tm^. 





I'm: U\-:pp :':,'■ 



VI 

"CHANGE AND REST " - 
BARGAINING 



SUMMER 



Although on the surface Cape Cod 
seems to offer a haven of refuge to 
that much overworked appendage to 
the modern man, the pocket-book, 
there are dotted here and there upon 
the highways and byways many com- 
paratively innocent pitfalls. 

To a close student of these danger 

^69] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

spots, they may be grouped under 
the heading "Tea-Rooms, Arts and 
Crafts Stores, and Antique Shops/' 

I know of no greater rehef than to 
escape from town and come to the 
Cape. Once there, the daily routine of 
office, the absence of any assigned 
duty, the leisure hours passed in or 
on the water or idly knocking about 
the golf links, tend to merge one day 
into another, so that time flashes past 
at an alarming rate. But every now 
and again comes a day when some 
member of the family suggests that 
we take the motor and extend our 
vision. It is upon such occasions that 
we test the financial astuteness of the 
aborigines. 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

One never visits the Cape w^ithout 
discovering how effectively the cHmate 
stimulates the appetite. What won- 
der, therefore, that every village and 
hamlet possesses a Tea-Room of vary- 
ing attraction ? 

The stop is made and the Tea-Room 
visited, only to find that the family, in 
addition to ordering the tea, with its 
accompaniment of toast and cake, or, 
for the younger members, a bottle 
of ginger ale or an ice-cream cone, 
are bent upon securing a souvenir. 
The Tea-Room is generally furnished 
with an assortment of articles intended 
for just such gullibles as ourselves. 
There are, for instance, baskets of as- 
sorted sizes and colors, for flowers, or 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

fruit, or sewing, or pine cones ; in fact 
for everything that should be thrown 
away, but isn't. We have several 
such baskets at home, but that does 
not prevent some member of the fam- 
ily from buying another. It will do 
for a Christmas present. Then there 
are varieties of other things made far 
away and designed to lure the cheer- 
ful motorist, such as charmingly dec- 
orated match-cases for elderly peo- 
ple, noisily painted tin pails for the 
children, dainty knockers, and all man- 
ner of knick-knacks for the women 
of the party. The invariable assort- 
ment of what, to a man, seems the es- 
sence of uselessness, and yet, I confess 
it, attractive to an insidious extent. 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

The pocket-book is touched, not 
severely, to be sure, but there is a per- 
ceptible shrinkage as we file out to con- 
tinue on our harmless junket. 

For a few miles we bowl along over 
a delightfully smooth road and give 
ourselves over entirely to the view. Now 
a long stretch of pine woods gives just 
a glimpse of the water glistening 
through the trees ; here and there a 
little farmhouse, snugly tucked among 
a clump of lilacs close to the road, with 
visions of larger establishments in the 
distance, out toward the sea, the homes 
of summer residents boldly exposed 
to the refreshing southwest wind ; then 
a long stretch of marsh and dune bril- 
liant in the sun. Suddenly we come 
[73] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 
upon a more thickly populated district 
where many of the old houses have 
been purchased and renovated to fit 
the needs of city people, who, with the 
assistance of some modem architect, 
oftentimes make enticing homes of 
these structures by the simple addition 
of porches and piazzas, with bright 
touches of paint here and there on blinds 
and doors, and the whole garnished 
well with bright flowers, climbing 
roses, and cozy hedges. 

It is generally near such a settle- 
ment that we come upon the Arts and 
Crafts in all their glory. 

Compared to the Tea-Room, the 
Art-Shop is a veritable mine of treas- 
ure. From a variety of toys which 

C74:i 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

would do credit to Schwartz to a com- 
plete set of hand-painted furniture such 
as one might expect to find in the win- 
dow of the largest furniture store in 
Boston during the months of May and 
June, seems a far cry for a small shop 
occupying a converted bungalow in a 
modest Cape town; but this sort of 
thing exists, and between these items 
there is an almost endless list of what for 
a better term may be called " special- 
ties,'' and even I, who scorn the new- 
ness of furnishings as they are displayed 
in town, fall a victim first to an ex- 
ceptionally soft- toned rag rug , oval in 
shape and comfortable to the tread, and 
also to a set of doilies made of a light, 
colorful variety of oilcloth with dainty 
C753 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

pattern that my wife says will save 
washing ; and lastly to a pair of bayberry 
candles, olive green and a full eight- 
een inches high, which it seems to me 
will give an admirable touch to our 
living-room mantel. 

The shrinkage in the pocket-book 
is easily discernible ; in fact I am led to 
say briskly that I think we had better 
be getting along home, and so we put 
our new treasures into the car and pro- 
ceed homewards by a new route more 
inland. 

It is always interesting to try the 
lesser known roads even if they are a 
bit rougher. They are little traveled and 
for this reason pleasanter in midsum- 
mer ; one rarely loses the way, for signs 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

are plentiful, and so we wind about the 
higher stretches which form the back- 
bone of the Cape, along sandy roads 
which at times diminish to mere cart- 
paths, but at all times are passable. 

Emerging from this forest district 
on one such excursion, we came quite 
suddenly upon the forking of two 
roads where a clump of neat-looking 
farmhouses, a schoolhouse, and a di- 
minutive church indicated a real town. 
Here my eye was arrested by the 
magic sign "Antiques" stuck into the 
lawn in front of one of the houses. 

While I do not admit the slightest 
lure in the sign of a Tea-Room except 
when hard-pressed by hunger, and but 
scant attraction in the Art-Shop, there 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

is something about the word "antique" 
that whets my appetite for exploration, 
and especially so when found in a quiet 
little hamlet off the beaten path and 
probably not familiar to the many hun- 
dreds of tourists whose smoothly run- 
ning motors of ample proportions be- 
speak well -filled pocket-books. Con- 
sequently I grasped the emergency 
brake and came to a sudden stop in 
spite of a feeble protest from my 
daughter and a heavy sigh from my 
wife on the back seat. 

Where antiques are concerned, I 
take the lead, or, to be more accurate, 
I stand alone, and so proceeded to the 
back door of the house ; for those who 
know Cape-Codders well enough real- 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

ize the inconvenience and delay which 
a knock at the front door provokes. 

Seeing a middle-aged woman bend- 
ing over the stove in the kitchen, I 
called a merry " Good-afternoon '' by 
way of salutation. 

"Good-afternoon," she replied as 
an echo might have thrown back my 
words. 

"I saw your sign < antiques' and 
thought perhaps I might have a look 
at them," I continued, nothing daunted. 

"Mister Eldridge ain't to home, 
but if you want to go out to the barn 
you can see what he 's got," she re- 
plied, without even turning her head 
to see what sort of a second-story man 
I might be. 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

Here was luck, however, for I could 
look over the stock in trade of this 
ambitious couple to my heart's content, 
and I made haste to the bam, which I 
found converted into one of the most 
amazing junk-shops it has ever been 
my pleasure to explore. 

Crowded together without rhyme 
or reason, and with no thought of dis- 
play, were the goods and chattels of 
generations of Cape-Codders ; tables, 
chairs, beds, sofas, ice-chests, a parlor 
organ, curtain rods, bits of carpet, 
crockery in all stages of dilapidation. 
On one of the tables a variety of hard- 
ware was strewn about, on one of the 
stiff-backed chairs reposed three old 
brass lanterns. A Rogers group on a 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

kitchen table was flanked by a White 
Mountain ice-cream freezer on one 
side and a fine old fire bucket on the 
other. A four-poster, of apple-wood, 
with fluted posts terminating in pine- 
apple tops, the wood in an excel- 
lent state of preservation, was the re- 
pository of a half-dozen pictures, three 
face-down, while one of the others 
disclosed itself as a really good copy 
of the engraving of Washington and 
his family. But to the casual observer, 
there seemed scarcely a piece of furni- 
ture or, in fact, anything which was suf- 
ficiently in repair to survive the journey 
to my house ; furthermore, the rank 
and file of articles were of recent date 
and had no charm for the collector. 
[81^ 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

However, the very hopelessness of 
the quest whetted my appetite, and 
to the utter disgust of my family, I 
spent a good half-hour rummaging 
about, not only in the main part of the 
barn, but also in the stalls, and even 
in the hayloft, for the whole build- 
ing was bulging with what seemed the 
cast-off furnishings of the entire Cape. 

The result of my examination was 
a really fine ship's lantern which I 
found in the loft; a pair of old pewter 
pepper pots, reclining in an old soap 
dish, and a couple of straight-back 
rush-seated chairs, a trifle rickety, but 
with the seats in excellent condition 
with the original rush plaiting, which 
is unmistakable. 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

For fear of mislaying my selection, 
I had brought them outside the bam, 
and at that moment a lanky, middle- 
aged farmer drove up in a buggy and 
slowly got out. 

"Is this Mr. Eldridge?" I asked. 

"Thet's me," he replied. "Been 
havin' a look over the department 
store ? I ain't got in my elevators, an* 
the outing department [here he looked 
at my golfing tweeds] ain't much to 
brag about, but I Ve got 'most every- 
thing in thar except the town hearse 
an' I 'm savin' that for my mother-in- 
law." 

By George ! I thought, here 's one 
of the real old-timers, nothing taciturn 
about him, and I pointed to the modest 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

selection I had made and asked him 
what the price was. 

"Well, as to price," he replied, 
taking off his hat and meditatively 
^scratching his head, " that 's the worst 
of the business. I never just know 
what my things are worth. Them 
chairs came from old widow Crocker's, 
over by Forestdale. She 'd never sell 
'em till she died, an' then she could n't 
help herself an' her son-in-law cleaned 
the place out, an' I got quite a lot of 
stuff an' paid him for the lot. What 
d' you say to a couple o' dollars 
apiece?" 

I said, " Yes," as soberly as I could. 
I would have given much more. 

"As to that lantern, it 's a good 'un 
[843 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

and the glass is all right. I shall have 
to get at least four dollars." 

"All right," said I, cheerfully, for 
I had seen a smaller one in Chatham 
go for eight just a few days before. 
** And how about the pepper pots ? " 

"Oh, you kin have 'em for — let's 
see — 'bout seventy-five apiece." And 
I agreed. 

" What do you do with all this 
stuff?" I asked, as he helped me to 
dispose of my treasures in an already 
well-filled car. 

" Oh, mostly I sell to the Portugees 
that come here farmin' and cranber- 
ryin'. Now an' then I get some old 
stuff' same as you jest picked up, but 
generally it 's the newer kind they like 
[85: 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

the best. I jest set that there sign up 
'cause I see every durn fellow 'long 
the road what has a toothpick or a 
shavin' mug to sell puts up a sign, an' 
so, says I, guess I '11 stick up one too." 
And that is the way I became ac- 
quainted with Silas Eldridge, dealer in 
antiques, who has sold me many a real 
treasure, but I keep his whereabouts 
as secret as possible, for of all the fasci- 
nating places for picking up astonish- 
ing bargains on Cape Cod, his old 
dilapidated barn offers the most sur- 
prises. 








VII 
A BLUE STREAK 



Slang is both the curse and the de- 
light of the Enghsh language, and that 
form of slang which our British friends 
term "Americanisms/' and which we 
have now largely adopted as our na- 
tional mode of communication, is not 
confined to the youth of to-day by any 
means. In the home, in business, and 
of course in sport, slang has found its 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

way and has spread like the weeds in 
the garden of the over-enthusiastic 
commuter. I remember hearing a 
clergyman of national reputation and 
advancing years say a short time ago, 
after a satisfying excursion of some 
sort, that he had " had more fun than 
a goat," and I defied him to elucidate 
that time-worn phrase to my satisfac- 
tion. 

The derivations and origins of Amer- 
ican idioms and colloquial expressions 
are vastly interesting, not only in show- 
ing the resourcefulness of our people 
in cutting wordy corners and in the 
development of a certain form of humor 
which I do not defend, but in shedding 
real light upon the whys and where- 

1-88 3 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

fores of our universe down to its small- 
est detail. A temperamental curiosity 
has led me from time to time to look 
up certain of the commoner expres- 
sions, and I am indebted to this ec- 
centric hobby for several pleasurable 
experiences. 

Many years ago — so many in fact 
that the memory is distasteful — I 
v^ent to a horse-race where the winner 
passed our stand at a pace which my 
companion described as "going like a 
blue streak," a familiar term with 
which I ignorantly agreed at the time. 
I suppose that since then I have heard 
it repeated many hundred times, but 
it was not until last summer when my 
son applied it to a motor-boat passing 

189-2 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

out of the harbor, that I thought of 
inquiring into its origin, and discov- 
ered, much to my surprise, that it ap- 
phed to the illusive and disconcerting 
movements of the ordinary sea crab, 
often called the "blue claw^." 

The discovery piqued my curiosity 
and I determined forthwith to investi- 
gate the locomotory accomplishments 
of these retiring animals. This w^as 
not as easy a task as I had expected. 
The crab is not socially inclined, and 
the term "crabbed" is soon apparent. 
He is only to be found at low tide, 
and generally near the mouth of a 
salty creek where the bottom is muddy 
and sparsely covered with seaweed 
and eelgrass. There in the late sum- 

[90] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

mer and fall he can be seen from 
canoe or rowboat, if one is patient and 
watchful, and the expression to "go 
like a blue streak " fits him like a 
glove. 

Having provided myself with a net 
of the butterfly variety, I determined 
to secure a specimen, and began my 
search among the creeks, so numer- 
ous along the shores of Cape Cod. 
Although we came upon quite a num- 
ber, it took the entire morning to cap- 
ture four. 

When unmolested, these creatures 
crawl slowly and deliberately about 
their business, sluggish in manner and 
shabbily dark in appearance, grubbing 
about on the bottom, now in, now out 

[90 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

of the seaweed, but the instant that 
danger is threatened, they undergo 
a transformation. The claws, from 
sprawling about on the mud at every 
angle, are drawn in, and like a flash 

— or, far better, "like a blue streak " 

— the particular crab that you have 
selected for capture darts away at an 
angle that leaves you helpless with 
wonder at the suddenness of his de- 
parture and at the blueness of his 
appearance. 

As soon as you have spotted your 
prey the excitement begins. Armed 
with the net, you crawl quietly to the 
bow of the boat and in whispers direct 
the rower, now this way, now that, 
following the route taken by the ca- 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

pricious crab. Sometimes the water is 
deep enough to permit the use of the 
oars, at others it is necessary to pole 
the boat in and out among the rocks 
covered by seaweed, your journey al- 
ways attended by silence and stealth as 
if the slightest noise would precipitate 
in flight this wily crustacean. 

At last when you are within strik- 
ing distance, the net is plunged in 
among the grass and brought up, alas ! 
empty, and the hunt continues as be- 
fore. 

When, after repeated trials, your 
patience is rewarded and a fine big 
fellow is caught, the greatest care 
must be taken to prevent him from 
crawling out of the net and escaping 

[933 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

before he is landed in the boat, for his 
activities are ceaseless. 

Indeed, even after he is flung deftly 
into the pail, his savage struggles may 
succeed in freeing him from captivity. 
And so it is only with infinite caution 
and patience — qualifications neces- 
sary in every game — that you are 
able to land your prize, and it is only 
then that you will find the explana- 
tion of the color quality of his passing. 
As the crab is taken from the water, 
its mud-colored shell appears a dark 
ultramarine blue, the claws of a 
lighter shade, the under part shading 
to white tinged with pink; its entire 
surface seems metallic in the intensity 
of its coloring as it leaves the water. 

[94;] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

From a slow, lazy animal of peaceful 
habits, the crab has become a veritable 
monster, savage and fiercely aggres- 
sive, and w^oe to the unfortunate w^ithin 
reach of his claw^s. 

His capture is a real experience and 
a distinctly sporting event. So inter- 
esting and mysterious is the search, 
so active and adventurous the pursuit, 
and so exciting and satisfying the ac- 
tual catch, that one is tempted to place 
crabbing among the big events of a 
summer at the seashore. 

I know^ a college professor who an- 
nually devotes the better part of his 
vacation to this pastime, and several 
of my athletic friends, whose prowess 
on the football field was a matter of 

C953 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

international comment in the papers, 
confess to the dehghts of a crab hunt ; 
but it is a surprising fact, neverthe- 
less, that the majority of those who 
visit the seacoast each year have never 
even heard of the extraordinary fas- 
cination of hunting the originator of 
the '<blue streak." 











VIII 
A FRESH-WATER CAPE 



To the majority of people Cape Cod 
spells sea breezes, a tang of salt in the 
air, scrub oaks, tall pines, stretches of 
sand, and a large appetite. To the 
few who know the Cape from more 
intimate acquaintance there is added 
to this picture a swelling country 
densely wooded in sections and spotted 
with ponds. It is a source of never- 

197:1 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

ending wonder how these ponds exist 
in a country where the soil is so po- 
rous that a few minutes after a shower 
there is no trace of the rain. In almost 
every instance they are fed from 
springs beneath the surface, and the 
solution has been offered and quite 
generally believed that much of this 
fresh water flows in subterranean 
channels having their source far dis- 
tant in the White Mountains. 

So plentiful is the supply that wells 
and pipes, driven a few feet into the 
soil at almost any spot, furnish clear, 
pure water in ample supply for house- 
hold needs. A more remarkable fact 
is that at low tide in many of the har- 
bors and inlets fresh water can be 

i98:\ 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

found between the high and low 
stretches, oozing through the salty- 
surface of sand and mud. And so the 
Cape, for all its salt qualities, has fresh 
water in profusion and ponds without 
number. In Plymouth County alone 
there are 365 ponds, many of them of 
substantial size, while the lower Cape 
is almost equally well provided. 

A generation ago, many of the res- 
idents of Plymouth passed their sum- 
mers on the largest of these — Long 
Pond. Having the salt breezes most 
of the year they wisely sought a change 
to inland waters. 

Last year I met a gentleman fish- 
ing in Wakeby Pond — made famous 
by Cleveland and Joe Jefferson — who 

1992 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

told me he came on from Chicago 
every year to pass a month bass fish- 
ing. He was probably ten miles from 
the coast, and might have been a hun- 
dred for all the good it did him ; but 
on the other hand, why not a pond on 
the Cape as well as a Rangeley Lake 
in Maine ? The hfe is much the same 
— the air refreshing and the scenery 
delightful. 

These larger ponds are fully as 
large as many of the Maine lakes. 
Long Pond at Plymouth is said to be 
ten miles long, and I have seen the 
water at Great Herring Pond as rough 
as one would care to have it when 
canoeing. 

To be sure the fishing is not per- 

Cioo;] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

haps so very exciting — few trout, 
except in the occasional streams which 
have been stocked, but land-locked 
salmon, perch, and pickerel to be had 
with a little patience, and a shrimp 
or so. The real pleasure which these 
ponds offer is the surprise and de- 
light of coming upon them as one 
does frequently and quickly while 
motoring through the less-frequented 
roads. From Plymouth down the Cape 
through Sandwich nearly every road 
and by-path leads to some picturesque 
little sheet of water often closely 
wooded to its shores and without a 
sign of habitation. 

From Wareham or Cotuit, from 
Pocasset or Falmouth, from Hyannis 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

or Chatham — in short, from nearly 
every one of the many Cape towns, a 
ride of fifteen or twenty minutes will 
take one to a pond which might as 
well be fifty miles from any center 
of human activity. One rarely meets 
other adventurers upon such trips, and 
the silence and peace which reign 
form excellent foils to the summer 
life so near at hand. 

Those who are wise in Cape ways 
possess small canoes mounted upon 
two wheels, which are fastened on 
behind their cars, so that, when tour- 
ing the ponds, they are not limited in 
their fishing to the shore or to the 
chance of finding a boat. 

There are a number of gentlemen 
[102] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

who have built small camps upon cer- 
tain of these secluded spots for casual 
excursions and for spring and fall use. 
They are wise. By leaving Boston at 
noon they can always be in camp by 
sundown ready to enjoy a full Sun- 
day, while the mighty fisherman who 
depends entirely upon the Maine lakes 
or the more remote places must plan 
a week's vacation, with the chance of 
better sport, to be sure, but no better 
life, for the life of a sportsman in the 
open is much the same. The great 
outdoors is universal in its appeal to 
the sane-minded and healthy-bodied. 
I have experienced as much heat 
and poorer fishing in Nova Scotia 
during July as I have on our ponds 
C103] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

of the Cape, and in addition I have 
noticed more mosquitoes and midges 
to the cubic inch in Canada than on 
these same ponds ; but of that perhaps 
the less said the better. 

I have in mind a Uttle excursion which 
illustrates these extremes of Cape life, 
and it is but one of many. In early 
July, when the children, freed from 
school restraint, were on the rampage, 
and our cottage was bearing the brunt 
of an onslaught of youthful visitors, 
each of our neighbors having one or two 
boys and girls as guests for their chil- 
dren, life seemed to me an unending 
series of activities coupled with cease- 
less slang. In fact, I was "fed up'' 
with it all, so that when my classmate 
[104] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

and old friend R telephoned to say 

that he was going up to the pond for 
a day or so, I clung to the receiver in 
my joy to escape. 

The preparations for such a trip are 
simple — a blanket, a change of cloth- 
ing, a toothbrush, no razor, food enough 
to fill a small basket, and — yes, I sup- 
pose it must be confessed — a bottle. 

My fishing tackle is always ready. 
The bait, however, is more difficult to 
secure. With net and pail I hastened to 
the creek which enters the harbor near 
our cottage, and, it being fortunately 
low tide, I was able, in the twenty 

minutes left before R 's arrival, 

to secure a fair supply of shrimp. That 
was all there was to it. We were off 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

well within an hour from the time of his 
message, and well within another hour 
we had arrived at his little shack perched 
high above the shore of one of the love- 
liest ponds on the Cape, and were set- 
tled for the night. 

The camp was well stocked with 
wood and simply furnished with camp 
beds, the ordinary cooking-utensils, 
and such comforts as may be gathered 
about a broad hearth and a roaring fire. 

Outside, the wind had died down 
and not a ripple disturbed the mirrored 
surface of the w^ater, which reflected 
the delicate outline of cedar, pine, and 
oak, a lacy filament which shielded 
the setting sun from the already sil- 
vered reflection of the half-moon. 

[; 106:1 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

«^ A perfect time of a perfect day, 
in a well-nigh perfect spot/' I said, 
by way of expressing the joy of my 
escape. 

" Such a burst of eloquence demands 
a toast," remarked my friend. 

So we forthwith resorted to the 
aforesaid bottle, and then turned to 
and prepared supper — the inevitable 
scrambled eggs, deviled ham, bread 
and marmalade, and coffee. 

" To think of that howling mob at 
home only twenty minutes away," I 
mused, puffing contentedly at my 
pipe and reveling in the silence. 

" To think of what a motor will do ! " 
replied my friend, who was not una- 
ware of my opinion of cars. 
[107] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

I muttered something incoherently, 
and squirmed a bit at the thought of 
some of my notions. 

The next morning we were up with 
the sun, and after a hasty bite, put our 
canoe into the water and set about our 
main task. 

We were both fairly familiar with 
the haunts of the wily bass. In sum- 
mer they lie close to the bottom, the 
laziest of fellows, sucking in the bait, 
if they notice it at all, in a dreamy fash- 
ion, but, once hooked, they show their 
mettle, and so, when I finally felt a 
slight strain on my line, I held back 
until I was sure of my fish. Yes, I had 
him, and a good big one at that. 

There is little or no casting in mid- 

[los;] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

summer, so that I had brought a stouter 
troUing-rod, and it was just as well. I 
played that fellow for ten minutes, 

and when R finally netted him for 

me, we sat and looked at each other 
speechless. 

'*By gad, he's a five-pounder!" 
said my friend excitedly. 

"Hum — about four and three 
quarters," I replied in a matter-of-fact 
tone to cover my excitement. 

We caught twelve that morning, 
several weighing two pounds or more, 
— splendid fishing, the best we had 
ever had on the pond. 

When we reached the camp and 
weighed my prize, he tipped the scales 
at five and three ounces — a record fish. 

[109] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

Late in the afternoon the clouds 
began to gather and the wind turned 
northeast, so we decided to run for 
cover. 

I was at home in time for dinner, 
and found the spell broken. It was 
I who did the talking, an amazing 
amount of it, while the youngsters sat 
open-mouthed when my bass was 
brought onto the table in a platter all 
to himself, garnished by our cook, 
who, so says my wife, is proud of my 
ability as a provider. 

What more versatile land of sum- 
mer, then, can one imagine than the 
seashore with an almost permanent 
breeze, with a chain of inland ponds 
remote and wild in character almost 

Clio;] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

at one's back door, motorively speak- 
ing? 

If variety is truly the spice of life, 
what better seasoned offering has any 
locality to show than Cape Cod ? 




'/J'^i^'^'^"' 










IX 

AL FRESCO 



Before you pass judgment upon any 
man or woman of your acquaintance, 
ask him or her to a picnic. Then if 
you are not ready to form a decision, 
they will probably have made up their 
minds about you. A picnic, so the 
Dictionary has it, is an entertainment 
in a grove, an ominous and hazardous 
place at best for a good time, and one 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

to be avoided except by sentimental 
couples, and therefore the Dictionary 
may be considered narrow-minded in 
naming the locality. Furthermore, its 
advice is rarely followed in these days, 
and the picnics which I prefer, and 
they are countless, are held upon the 
seashore and, for the most part, in the 
sea itself. 

There is a white, sandy beach of a 
mile or more, banked by great sand- 
dunes and bordering a section of Buz- 
zard's Bay which is comparatively un- 
known, where there are no houses, 
not even bath-houses, and where the 
delighted squeal of the noisy girl or 
the guffaw of the blatant youth is 
rarely heard. It is here that we fre- 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

quently gather with a few good friends 
upon pleasant warm days, for an im- 
promptu meal alfresco, preceded by 
a joyous bath in water as clear as 
crystal, warm and yet with a spiciness 
that clears the head from all drowsi- 
ness and whets the appetite to a keen 
edge. 

There are problems to every pic- 
nic. The conventions of life grip hard, 
and yet it is curious and sometimes 
amusing to see how thin the veneer 
really is when the primitive necessities 
of a picnic are faced. 

The sand-dunes are conveniently 

rolling, every now and then dipping 

into bowl-like formations, and in these 

sequestered or semi-sequestered nooks 

[114] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

we don our bathing-suits and sally 
forth to the sea. One of our friends, 
a man somewhat particular as to his 
appearance and the soul of modesty, 
was directed to the appointed place, 
but his love for the view led him up 
the slope, so that, innocently turning 
our gaze shoreward, the feminine por- 
tion of our gathering was consider- 
ably disconcerted to see the apostle 
of Beau Brummel in nature's garb in- 
nocently viewing the horizon and giv- 
ing little heed to his natty bathing- 
suit, a black and orange affair with 
immaculate white belt which lay at his 
feet. 

The women, too, those who but a 
few moments before would have tried 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

in every way to conceal a hole in 
their stockings, were glad to borrow 
bathing-dresses of any reasonable style 
if by chance they had forgotten to 
pack their own, and stockings seemed 
of no importance. 

To line up twenty or more on the 
beach and rush for a plunge, to breast 
the billows or to grope amid the sands 
for sea clams, to race along the beach 
for the sheer joy of life, is the glad 
part of what I call a picnic. And then 
the food! No meal which must be 
coaxed along by a cocktail or other 
appetizer, to prepare the way for 
course after course of indigestible 
concoctions planned by fertile- minded 
chefs, but honest beef and chicken and 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

ham sandwiches, delicately prepared 
and tastefully arranged. Sandwiches 
of lettuce and cheese and paprika; 
sandwiches with sardines, with olives ; 
graham sandwiches with a thin layer 
of marmalade or guava intended for 
the children, but partaken of by all. 
And stuffed eggs, the variety only to 
be found at a picnic and eaten in two 
gulps, the one place where such table 
manners are tolerated. 

And it is on picnics that the ther- 
mos bottle is most thoroughly appre- 
ciated. The miracle of hot bouillon, 
hot coffee, iced tea, and a variety of 
beverages, suitably chilled or heated, 
seems ever to be a source of fresh 
surprise and pleasure. 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

Toward autumn, the picnics offer a 
new variety, for the children thrill at 
the expectation of cooking their own 
dinner. The joys of a bonfire, the ex- 
citement of burying potatoes, corn, 
and clams in seaweed, the frying of 
ham and eggs, and the occasional treat 
of flapjacks when one of our nautical 
friends happens to be of our number. 
These are but a few of the pleasures 
of a picnic such as one encounters on 
the shores of Buzzard's Bay in August 
and September. 

It must be admitted that there are 
certain drawbacks which seem serious 
to the individual of fixed habits, ten- 
der feet, and uncertain digestion. There 
is, for example, the beautiful white 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

sand, glistening in the sun, smooth 
as a billiard table and fine as powder. 
It must be admitted that after the bath 
one is conscious of the pervading qual- 
ity of its particles. It is in one's hair, 
one's shoes, and often elsewhere about 
the person. It is discovered invading 
the aforesaid sandwiches, which seem 
well named at such times. A brisk wind 
slaps it into your eye or your mouth 
in disconcerting fashion, and you be- 
come aware of its grating presence. 
Then, again, there are clouds upon 
the horizon. To those who are seri- 
ously affected by the sand, these clouds 
look ominous. They may forebode a 
storm and a wetting. A certain clam- 
miness of hands and feet, occasioned by 

1:1193 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

the bath, remind one that a change 
in the weather precedes a cold in the 
head. These feelings mark the man 
of creature comforts and he fails to 
join in the part-singing which comes 
after the hearty meal, when pipes are 
lighted and the entire gathering stretch 
themselves upon the sands for a 
lazy half-hour before the inevitable 
cleaning-up process begins. This same 
individual declines to tell his best story, 
and should a ball game be suggested, 
he will be found callous to all coax- 
ing. He has enough sand in his shoes 
as it is, or he has eaten too much for 
exercising, or possibly the clouds on 
the horizon lower more formidably. 
Yes, a picnic discloses the strength 
[120;] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

and weakness of character which mark 
our friends, and yet, after all, it does 
more, for it brings out the best in 
most of us, and few, even of our ha- 
bitually conventional friends, fail to 
respond to the delights of a seashore 
picnic or lack in the essential philoso- 
phy of an outdoor, care-free exist- 
ence. 






, (•<! / fcVf 



'nlu 



i^'-di. 




X 

MODELS 



Long before the Old Colony Railroad 
thought of running a line to Cape Cod 
— although that in itself was not so 
very long ago, well within the mem- 
ory of man — there was one charm of 
the Cape which is fast vanishing and 
entirely unknown to the casual visitor 
and unappreciated by the perennial 
summer residents. In those days there 

[122] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

was a host of rugged, sturdy men, 
intelligent, courageous, upright, and 
keen-minded. They were the Cape 
captains, the men who grew up among 
the sand-dunes, to the rote of the sea. 
The men who carried the good name 
of Cape Cod to the ends of the earth 
and who brought back with them the 
fortunes which made the little towns, 
dotted here and there along the shore, 
havens of comfort and rest. 

Such men could tell stories which 
would vie with those of Conrad and 
Stevenson, but for the most part their 
deeds go unrecorded except in their 
ships' logs, for they were a simple, 
reserved company. Of this epoch 
there remains but one relic which is 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

sought after by the present genera- 
tion, and it savors of the antique. In 
fact, it is the antiquarian rather than 
the adventurer who ransacks the Cape 
at present for ships' models. 

In those early days there w^ere 
months at a time when the ship's 
company were idle, and it grew to be 
a custom for those clever with their 
hands to fashion models of the schoon- 
ers in which they sailed or of seacraft 
notable for beauty of line or complex- 
ity of rig. 

Many an old sea captain would pass 
his idle moments in fashioning these 
miniature boats, and many members 
of the ships' crews became adept at 
the hobby, for a knowledge of tools 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

was almost an essential for every man 
on the Cape, where the trades of 
carpenter, painter, and plumber were 
generally performed by the house- 
holder. Furthermore, a sailor would 
infinitely prefer to whittle out a model 
than to swab down the deck, and fre- 
quently a clever mechanic would be 
relieved by his captain from this me- 
nial work, if he devoted his time to the 
perfection of a model which was des- 
tined for the mantel of the captain's 
best parlor. 

Therefore, in the old days, there 
was scarcely a Cape family of salt- 
water ancestry which did not boast of 
at least one model and often more, the 
trademark of an honorable and haz- 

[125] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

ardous occupation and a relic of former 
days of plenty when the Cape was 
peopled only by the native Cape-Cod- 
ders and before steam took from them 
the vocation to which they were reared. 
To-day the captain of a full-rigged 
ship is as hard to find as the vessel 
herself, and the Cape exists upon 
the summer residents and upon the 
less productive occupation of fishing, 
which is largely in the hands of the 
Portuguese, who have come in droves 
to settle upon our land of Bartholomew 
Gosnold and his company of adven- 
turers. And so the interest in ships and 
in tales of the sea has disappeared 
along with those who upheld the trade ; 
and the models, familiar sights to the 

[126] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

descendants, have been relegated to 
the attic or have been sold as curiosi- 
ties to the ubiquitous dealers in an- 
tiques, v^ho persistently come to the 
Cape for old furniture, pev^ter, china 
— anything, in fact, w^hich can be 
palmed off on that voracious type of 
collector, the lover of antiques. 

During the last few years, for some 
reason or other, these models have 
become very popular. Just why it is 
not easy to explain. It is true that they 
typify a lost trade which was full of 
adventure. It is also true that they are 
decorative, many of them, but that 
hardly explains the ravenous appetite 
which many collectors of antiques have 
recently developed to obtain a genuine 
1:127:1 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

model. Dealers have secured agents 
in every town on the Cape who are 
ransacking their neighborhoods for 
models, half-models, pictures of boats 
made in bas-reliefs, weather vanes in 
the shape of ships, and the prices are 
increasing by leaps and bounds. In 
fact, so popular has this fad become 
that ex-sailors and carpenters with 
some slight acquaintance with the sea 
are now developing quite a business in 
fashioning models of special designs 
or of former famous ships. A few 
years ago the model of a schooner 
about two feet in length fully rigged 
would bring in the neighborhood of 
twenty-five dollars ; to-day the same 
model could not be secured for less 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

than one hundred dollars. Often the 
smaller, more exquisitely made spec- 
imens will bring more. The descend- 
ants of the old captains have lost any 
sentimental regard for these relics and 
gladly part with them for a compara- 
tively small sum, but only to the pa- 
tient and skillful, who know Cape 
ways and Cape people, and so it is 
almost impossible for the tourist to 
secure a model except from a dealer. 
Should the casual summer visitor 
attempt to bargain with his native 
Cape neighbor, he would find him a 
wily bird, suspicious of being imposed 
upon and as likely as not to put an 
absurd valuation upon his possession ; 
and yet that same Cape neighbor 

[129] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

might part with the model the next 
day to a total stranger for a smaller 
sum, for such is the nature of the 
denizen of the Cape. This contrary- 
mindedness and disinclination to do a 
favor is not unusual, but as against this 
trait, he will be found to be a genial 
host and a kindly acquaintance often 
generous beyond his means. 

And so to-day we witness the pass- 
ing of the models, last relic of the 
olden days, the golden days of Cape 
Cod, from those tiny Cape cottages 
built by these same sturdy sea captains 
to the comfortable mansions of the 
summer people whose knowledge of 
the sea is secured in July and August 
by an occasional dip, a sail in a knock- 
Ciso] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

about, and a glimpse of a glorious sun- 
set over the shining waters of the 
Atlantic Ocean c 




XI 
"A WET SHEET AND A FLOWING SEA" 



In my youthful days I often wondered 
at the regularity with which elderly 
people would go out to drive day after 
day, sitting in the same seat in the same 
carriage, behind the same horses, driven 
by the same coachman along the same 
roads. It seemed to me a lamentable 
waste of time. And now I have more 
or less (less as the years advance) the 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

same feeling toward those couples 
whose chief relaxation is a spin along 
the state roads of their district in a 
well-appointed limousine, for I belong 
to that class of motorists who use their 
cars purely for convenience and prefer 
the fresh-air variety. 

Yet, when it comes to sailing, for 
some reason which I am at a loss to 
explain, my views are diametrically 
opposite. I am content to clamber 
into my knockabout and to perform 
the routine labor of pumping *<her'' 
out, unfurling and hoisting the sail, 
and casting off, then to cruise lazily 
about our harbor, sailing over the 
same course day in and day out with 
little variation, and to do this either 

Hiss] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

alone or with a kindred spirit as the 
case may be. 

To many these cases may seem par- 
allel, but to me they are widely variant. 
There is a formality to a drive or a 
motor ride which starts with the cos- 
tume worn and ends with the charac- 
ter of conversation. 

On a boat — and I am speaking en- 
tirely of small boats — the costume 
is of a heterogeneous variety and the 
conversation of the freest. In fact, 
there is something so thoroughly un- 
conventional about life on the water 
that even the stiffest of Brahminian 
Bostonians may occasionally be heard 
to indulge in slang and to assume a 
rakish attitude, perched upon deck. 

[134] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

But such criticism, or rather com- 
parison, is highly superficial. There is 
more to it than external appearance; 
for sailing brings out the best in human 
nature, encourages philosophy, devel- 
ops independence of thought and act, 
and largely so because those who sail 
shed their coating of reserve and allow 
their natural feelings fair play. There 
is no quicker way to know and size up 
one's friends than to go on a cruise for 
a few days. There is no better way of 
enjoying and extending one's friend- 
ships with both sexes than spending 
a few afternoons sailing together, skirt- 
ing along the shore with a fair breeze, 
nor is there any quicker way of learn- 
ing the weaknesses of certain indi- 

[135] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

viduals than by observing their con- 
duct under perhaps less peaceful con- 
ditions at sea. For the best of skippers 
cannot predict weather conditions, and 
there are times when wind and storm 
will come upon one with surprising 
quickness. 

Here in New England, the sailing 
fraternity may be divided into those 
who prefer the Maine coast and those 
who cling to the Cape and Buzzard's 
Bay. As one of the latter class, I always 
claim our supremacy by stating two 
points which I believe to be true : first, 
that we have more wind, and second, 
that we have less fog. To me this is 
convincing. The southwest wind which 
cools the Cape, blows nearly every day 

[136:! 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

in summer and with a strength that 
often requires reefing. Rarely between 
ten in the morning and five at night 
will the mariner find himself be- 
calmed in Buzzard's Bay. In fact, the 
stranger is generally amazed to see 
girls and young boys sailing without 
the presence of an older person, in what 
looks to him a three-reef breeze. 

They have been brought up to it 
and realize that vigilance must always 
be exercised on the water, and they 
know the qualities of their boat and the 
power of the wind. I know of no better 
training for youngsters who are pro- 
ficient in swimming than to learn to 
sail and race their own little boats. The 
development of a power of observa- 

1:137] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

tion, accurate judgment, prompt action, 
and steady nerve comes more quickly 
with the handhng of a boat than in any 
other way for those who lead our kind 
of life. 

Sailing is confined to boats, but boats 
are not by any means confined to sail- 
ing, for latterly there are almost as 
many motor-boats to be found chug- 
ging along the shores of the Cape as 
there are sailboats, although I person- 
ally always pity the groups in the stern 
of one of these modern affairs which 
makes its noisy passage leaving an 
odorous wake of oil and smoke. But 
doubtless I am extreme in my views 
and old-fashioned in my taste. 

Give me a knockabout — a fifteen- 

11382 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

footer for real comfort for a daily sail, 
a stiff member of the twenty-one-foot 
class for cruising along shore. Give me 
a comfortable catboat, broad of beam, 
for a family boat or for a day's fishing, 
or let me idle about in one of our little 
twelve-foot HerreshofF class with my 
small son. In any one of them I shall 
find the same sense of freedom, the 
same sort of pleasure, and the same 
love for the salt sea, and from each I 
shall look at the windy, sandy shores of 
the Cape with the same loyal affection. 




XII 
MY CAPE FARM 



If I have thought of it at all, I have 
thought of myself as a sociable cuss. 
Not that I like sociables ; I hate them, 
and that is probably vv^hy they have 
gone out of fashion. What to my 
mind defines sociability is the quality 
of enjoying and giving enjoyment to 
others, singly, in pairs, or in groups ; 
and in present days sociability is gen- 
[1403 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

erally put to the test either at dinners 
or at week-end parties, for these are 
the principal points of contact between 
friends. 

Latterly, however, my social bent 
has been somewhat warped by the 
growing desire on the part of my 
friends to boast of their success as 
producers of food. Whether it be pre- 
mature senility, the result of conser- 
vation, or merely the acquisition of 
wealth, which is being rapidly returned 
to its own through the purchase of 
land and the ingenuity of gardeners, 
it is a fact that at dinners of the cut- 
and-dried variety or a family gather- 
ing, or, more especially, over a week- 
end, my host invariably calls attention 

[140 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

to the asparagus with a modest cough 
as prelude, or my hostess mentions 
the number of eggs the farmer brought 
in yesterday to be put down in water- 
glass. Sometimes it is not asparagus, 
but peas, or corn, or perhaps a chicken, 
or even a ham. This the host. His 
wife more generally dilates upon the 
milk products and the preserving end 
of the bill of fare ; but, for whatever 
cause, the thing got a bit on my 
nerves, so that I found myself think- 
ing of reasons for not visiting So-and- 
So or for not dining with the Thing- 
um-Bobs on Friday week, when I 
knew we hadn't a thing on earth 
to do. 

This frame of mind was, of course, 
[142] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

all wrong. In the first place, these 
friends were as good and as loyal as 
they were ten years ago, when, if 
they had any garden at all, it con- 
sisted of a half-dozen radishes that no 
one could eat without summoning a 
physician within four hours. Further- 
more, the aforesaid asparagus, with its 
accompaniments, was better than the 
ordinary variety which has decorated 
the entrance to the greengrocer's estab- 
lishment for the better part of a week. 
And lastly, as I had no garden my- 
self, why not enjoy the best and be 
thankful ? 

Probably the reason was envy and 
the season spring, when, contrary to 
budding nature, one's own physical 

[;i43j 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

being is not as blooming as it should 
be. 

Be this as it may, the final result 
has probably made me more of a bore 
to my friends than they ever were to 
me, for to get even with them I con- 
ceived the happy idea of catering to 
their epicurean tastes from my own 
farm, which consisted of a scant two 
acres of shore line in that section of 
Cape Cod which is renowned for its 
scarcity of soil. 

The idea came to me soon after we 
had moved down for the summer » 
months, and my wife became so en- 
thusiastic that it really became our 
hobby for the season. We had planned 
for a succession of week-ends, and 
[144] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

many of these agricultural intimates 
were coming to us for return visits. 
We would feed them upon the fat of 
our land or in this case largely the fat 
of the sea. 

It is interesting and instructive to 
learn just what varieties of food can 
be secured from the immediate vicin- 
ity of any place, and to me especially 
so of our Cape Cod. 

During the entire summer I felt so 
personal an interest in our section of 
the country that my small son ex- 
claimed one day that I talked as if I 
owned the entire Cape. I know I felt 
a proprietary interest in certain fish- 
ing grounds, the whereabouts of which 
I would not confess even on the rack. 
1:1453 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

And it amuses me now to think of 
the circuitous routes I used in getting 
to certain berry patches and stretches 
where mushrooms grew overnight. 
In variety our dinners, or high teas 
(as we always called them), were in- 
finite as compared with those of our 
asparagus associates. 

I remember one little repast which 
pleased me mightily, because it came 
at the end of one of those hot days — 
they are rare on the Cape — when the 
wind refused to blow from the south- 
west. We had had our swim, but even 
golf was a bit too strenuous and food 
does not have its usual appeal on such 
occasions even on the Cape. It also 
happened that our friends of this par- 

1:146] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

ticular week-end were literally con- 
gested with land and its more generous 
offerings, and so when I practiced the 
usual humiliatory cough and remarked 
that our simple repast came from my 
Cape farm and they must excuse its 
simplicity, I was just a trifle nervous. 
The melons were a gift from my 
plumber, a curious combination. If only 
the plumber could plumb as well as 
he grows melons upon his barren 
sandpile, our summer comfort would 
be increased by fifty per cent. No 
better melons can be found than these 
little fellows. The clam-broth, from 
my own clam-bed, was an appetizer. 
I seriously believe that there is real 
energizing value in such clam-broth 

[147] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

as this, boiled down almost to a liqueur 
from newly dug clams. Then came 
scallops plucked that day from the 
seaweed, where they lie at low tide 
blowing like miniature whales. We 
all know how delicious they are in the 
autumn served with tartare sauce, but 
have you ever tasted them creamed 
with a dash of brown sherry and served 
with fresh mushrooms ? 

Just as the plumber supplies us 
with melons, so the fishman is the 
local authority on lettuce. Our salad, 
therefore, came from Captain Barwick, 
crisp and white with slices of early 
pears from a near-by tree, and with it 
my favorite muffins of coarse, white 
cornmeal toasted, thin, and eaten with 

1:148:1 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

beach-plum jam made from our own 
bushes in the bramble patch close by 
the lane, and cottage cheese which 
our cook positively enjoys making. 

My wife had felt this to be a rather 
scant repast for those used to dinners 
of six or eight courses, and so the 
dessert was a substantial huckleberry 
pudding served cold from the ice- 
chest with whipped cream, and to take 
the chill off we had a small glass of 
my home-made wild-cherry brandy 
with our coffee ; and while there are 
other beverages which are preferable 
I confess it gave us a delightfully 
comforting sensation. 

The hearty, genuine praise from 
my guests gave me a fleeting feeling 
[149] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

of shame at the way I had criticized 
their asparagus and numberless eggs, 
but the pride of success carried me 
with it. 

" Oh, this is not anything ; wait until 
to-morrow and let me show you the 
varieties which my farm offers. In the 
catboat, I have a well in which we 
keep fish alive. What say you to a 
butterfish for breakfast? For dinner 
we can either go out to the fishing 
grounds for something with a real 
pull to it, or we can motor over to 
Turtle Pond for a try at a bass, or we 
can golf and take a couple of lobsters 
out of my pots bobbing up and down 
out there by the point.'* 

"Hold on," my friend interjected. 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

"What I want to know is whether 
every one on the Cape lives in this 
way, for if they do I think I shall be 
moving down here by another sea- 



son/' 



"No," I replied, "very few. In the 
first place, most people continue to do 
just what their neighbors do — tennis, 
golf, swimming, sailing. The fishing 
is poor unless you know where to go. 
The natives are not helpful unless you 
know how to take them, and that is 
why I call it all my farm, because I 
have taken it all unto myself and I 
reap a reward much richer than I de- 
serve. 

"I pass much of my time hunting 
up new fishing grounds or the lair of 

[; 151:3 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

the soft-shell crab, or even the quiet, 
muddy recesses of the * little necks/ 
I wander about the country exploring 
new berry patches, for there is a great 
variety of these. And if you must 
know, I fraternize with certain delight- 
fully conversational individuals who 
sell me delicious fruit and vegetables 
as well as ducks and chickens and a 
variety of odds and ends, as, for instance, 
that little model over there. But you 
could not buy them. No, sir, not until 
you learned the art of negotiation to 
perfection. You may manage your 
estates to the Queen's taste, but when 
it comes to managing a Cape-Codder, 
ah, that 's not done so easily." 

I see my friends leading the con- 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

ventional summer life and wonder at 
times how they can come to the Cape 
year after year and yet be strangers 
to its real fascination, because it has 
many other hidden allurements besides 
this quest for food. 




^'-m^^^^- 

//^/ •:# . ^^^' 



1 












,>yV.:v,.Vi.-a'.-i>, ;• .' 






'luSil W ! !"" '"* 



has 



i^*'Um nimiBKimnmi*' 







XIII 
SCALLOPS 



Sport, according to our highest au- 
thorities, is "that which diverts and 
makes mirth," and from this general 
interpretation the term has been ap- 
plied to games, and to the various 
forms of hunting and fishing com- 
monly known, but I have yet to hear 
the word applied to the pursuit of the 
scallop. And yet, scalloping more 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

nearly approaches the original mean- 
ing of sport than most of the games 
which are commonly classed under 
this heading, for not only does the 
scallop divert and provoke the mirth 
of his pursuer, but the pursuer in turn 
evokes a similar feeling and impres- 
sion upon those who chance to see him 
in action. Those who have never tasted 
the joys and excitement of a scallop 
hunt have not completed their educa- 
tion as real sportsmen. It is true that 
Badminton does not devote a volume 
to this particular pastime ; it is equally 
true that the progressive American 
journalist, whose duty it is to supply 
the sporting columns of his paper with 
all the news of current athletic events. 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

invariably ignores this important item, 
and our mighty Nimrods fail to in- 
clude scalloping among their feats of 
prowess ; but in each case the cause 
of the omission invariably can be traced 
to ignorance, and to the fact that your 
scallop-hunter is a wary fellow who 
says but little and boasts less, fearing 
inadvertently to disclose the favored 
haunts of his favorite prey. And so, 
for these and divers causes, the pur- 
suit of the scallop lies in obscurity. 

On the other hand, the scallop has 
been a friend to man for generations 
in many and varied ways. In the days 
of the Crusaders, the pilgrims return- 
ing from the Holy Land wore scallop 
shells, gathered upon the coast of 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

Palestine, as a badge or mark of the 
success of their wanderings. At an 
equally early period the scallop shell 
became an important factor in design, 
from architecture, through the vari- 
ous stages, to the adornment of women's 
clothes. The scallop shell is discovered 
embedded in the capitals of many 
famous columns. It will be found 
chiseled upon the keystones of count- 
less arches. Scarcely a theater but 
possesses it among its mural decora- 
tions. Upon the title-pages of books 
it serves in an equally decorative ca- 
pacity, while the scalloping upon the 
hems of dresses brings the scallop's 
shell familiarly into our family life. 
In addition to all this, certain fami- 

1:157] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

lies of ancient lineage have adopted 
the shell as a part of their crest. Her- 
aldry traces the cause to the days of 
the Knights of the Holy Land. 

The scallop, therefore, has been 
sought by generations, and is no ma- 
rine upstart basing his claims to popu- 
larity upon his flavor as a savory dish 
for a modern LucuUus. In short, the 
scallop is historic, artistic, decorative, 
and delicious. In real life, how^ever, 
he is one of the numerous marine bi- 
valve moUusks of the genus Pecten, 
and to those who have not already 
recognized the symmetrically ribbed 
shells so often found upon our beaches, 
a dictionary is recommended. 

Although his past is buried in the 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

annals of the Holy Land, in ^Egean 
waters, and upon the banks of the 
Red Sea, just at present-he is rampant 
upon the shoals of Cape Cod, and it 
is here that our scallopers pursue him 
during the weeks previous to early- 
autumn days, when the Cape fisher- 
man wages destruction with sea-rakes, 
seines, and nets. 

Imagine the tide running low, dis- 
closing the bright, sandy bottoms of 
countless inlets, the ripple of the wa- 
ters making dim the outlines of the 
corrugated surfaces of the submerged 
shore. At such times, and in certain 
localities which shall be nameless, 
the wily hunter issues forth in bath- 
ing-suit or rubber-booted, or even — 

c 159:1 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

in the enthusiasm of the moment — 
fully clothed, with pail or basket some- 
times attached to his waist by a cord. 
He wades in at a slow pace, gazing 
searchingly into the depths of the 
water for a sign of his prey, choosing 
at first the shoals where it is easier to 
see, and as likely a spot as others for 
fine shellfish. And here a curious phe- 
nomenon is discovered ; his eye catches 
the glint of a shining shell and he 
stoops to secure it, only to find a half 
shell without life. The brighter the 
shell, the less chance of its being in- 
habited. The scallop covers himself 
when possible with a few strands of 
seaweed, or buries himself in the mud 
or sand, and therefore, when in the 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

full bloom of life, he looks like a 
hoary, hairy thing of past history, an 
encrusted shell from which life might 
have departed a century ago. If, by 
good fortune, the hand comes in con- 
tact with him, however, his vitality is 
made quickly evident by a savage snap 
of his shell, as the large muscle ex- 
pands and contracts in self-defense, 
and should a finger become caught 
between the upper and lower shells, 
the hunter is in for a sharp nip. The 
quest leads from spot to spot, from 
shoal water out into deeper parts, 
until one finds one's self waist-deep, 
bending and stooping, raking the bot- 
tom with frenzied hand groping for 
these tufted prizes, and when one is 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

fortunate to secure a good spot, the 
hand never fails to bring up one, two, 
and sometimes more, of these irate 
creatures whose antics evoke admira- 
tion and whose strength seems al- 
most abnormal. 

There are bright, warm days in the 
latter part of August when on many 
parts of the shore may be seen men, 
women, and children by scores, curi- 
ously and wonderfully garbed, gro- 
tesquely postured, wading the waters 
in this fascinating pursuit, which, after 
the quiet glamor of clam-digging, 
possesses the excitement of big-game 
hunting. Were it not for a strict law 
these same hardy hunters would, un- 
doubtedly, be found in dories, plying 

[162;] 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

a small net for the same purpose, but 
the very crudity of the chase has its 
advantages, for one comes close to the 
life of the sea bottom, and all that 
goes on there, from the waving masses 
of seaweed of many varieties to the 
countless forms of life clinging to the 
rocks, embedded in the mud or dart- 
ing through the water. The sea bot- 
tom is as busy as Broadway, and as 
full of mystery. 

The reader must not for a moment 
imagine the scallop, however, as be- 
longing to a sedentary type of life. 
Often he is found moving at a high 
rate of speed through the water, pro- 
pelled by this same muscle which 
provides his defense. By opening and 

ties 3 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

closing his shell he moves forward 
and upward or downward, apparently 
at will, digging himself into the mud 
and effectually hiding himself from 
his pursuers. He deserves the respect 
of his superiors in the animal king- 
dom, and at the same time proves 
himself fair game by his prowess. 

And so one is led out and out still 
farther, until, bent upon securing one 
more victim, a mouthful of water and 
smarting eyes give notice that those 
beyond are safe for the time being, 
and the successful hunter returns to 
his boat with a full pail, while the 
sun, enormous and a deep orange red, 
is just touching the horizon. 

The conquest is not complete, for 

1:1643 



CAPE-CODDITIES 

it is no easy task to open these snap- 
ping bivalves, and thus to extract the 
muscle that is the edible portion, and 
the full reward is by no means reaped. 
That is left for the evening meal, 
when the scallop becomes the piece de 
resistance cooked in one of a hundred 
ways. But of this let a cordon bleu 
convince you, whose best efforts are 
secured and deserved by the scallop. 




AFTERMATH 



And now comes the fall of the year 
with days gorgeous in coloring, from 
the clear crystal blue of the sky re- 
flected in sparkling waters to the 
flame-tinted stretches of woodland 
watched over by tall pines and guarded 
by stately cedars. The sandy roads glis- 
ten in the distances, marking off sec- 
tions of the Cape country as a huge 
picture puzzle. The atmosphere seems 
purged of all imperfection, giving to 
every town and hamlet a spotless ap- 
pearance bright with late flowers and 
fresh fruit awaiting the harvest. Azure 
days of October, the most perfect of the 
year. It is then that regretfully we say 
'* au re voir " to our beloved Cape in all 
its glory. 



CAMBRIDGE . MASSACHUSETTS 
U . S . A 



